1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to cigarette holders and, more specifically, to a responsible cigarette holder designed to reduce the harmful effects of smoking and wean heavy habitual smokers from smoking.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cigarettes contain hundreds of ingredients or chemical compounds. Burning these ingredients into cigarette smoke changes the ingredients into thousands of chemical by-products, at least 43 of which are known to cause cancer and exhibit other poisonous or toxic effects on human tissues. Thus, for example, ingredients in cigarette smoke are known to have adverse medical effects on the following conditions:                1. Cancer        2. Cardiovascular disease        3. Emphysema        4. Chronic lungs disease        5. Early onset wrinkles around the eyes        6. Impotence        7. Infertility        8. Yellowing of teeth        9. Dark points on gums        10. Eye cataracts and many more        
The U.S. Surgeon General has indicated that stopping or reducing cigarette smoking is the key to many of these cigarette-related problems. While monumental campaigns have been used to stop or prevent smoking, particularly with the younger population, cigarette smoking continues to be a health hazard and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that some 44 million people smoke in the United States.
Every year tobacco kills more Americans than were killed in WWII. Tobacco kills more than the AIDS virus, cocaine, heroin, alcohol, vehicular accidents, homicide and suicide combined. Everyday 1,200 Americans die from smoking and each of those people is replaced by two young smokers.
In addition to the public and private anti-cigarette campaigns, many devices have been proposed to help smokers reduce the harmful effects of smoking. One of the earlier developments was to incorporate cigarette filters into cigarettes through which the smoke passes before it is inhaled. Cigarette filters are helpful in reducing some of the hazardous particles from passing from the cigarette into the mouth, throat and lungs of the smoker. Thus, for example, a heat reducing cigarette filter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,998,819, and cigarette filters are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,038,477; U.S. Pat. No. 3,081,777 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,150,668. More elaborate cigarette filters are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,335,733; 3,395,713 and 4,343,320. The objective of most of these filters is to block and trap smoke particles as smoke is drawn through the cigarette and the filter into the mouth.
Cigarette holders have also been proposed for helping smokers avoid the hazardous effects of cigarette smoke, including the deleterious effects of tar and nicotine. Such cigarette holders are designed to be used with cigarettes that both have filters and those that do not, providing an added measure of protection to the smokers irrespective of which cigarettes they smoke or how effective the filter is incorporated in those cigarettes. For example, a cigar pipe is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 732,252 that includes an absorbent material for collecting nicotine, being replaceable for use multiple times. The patent discusses the absorbent properties of the absorbent material and the cooling qualities thereof and, the ease with which the device may be cleaned. One of the embodiments discloses a diaphragm provided with a series of discs of cork, baked earth, rubber sponge or other suitable material arranged between the diaphragm and the mouthpiece. The discs are provided with minute apertures for the passage of smoke and primarily designed to remove nicotine from the smoke.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,062,220 a plug is disclosed for removing deleterious products of combustion from tobacco smoke, a plurality of transfer wall sections being provided between the cigarette and the mouthpiece that serve as baffles for the smoke to provide a cooling effect upon the smoke with condensing action of condensable materials in the smoke. The goal is to remove material from the chamber, due to the condensation to free the smoke from harmful particles as it passes through the device. The device is described as utilizing fluid dynamics, as opposed to filtering materials, to remove the deleterious products.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,292,635 an integral cigarette-holder is disclosed designed to provide both cooling and filtering of cigarette smoke before it reaches the mouth of the smoker. The patent discloses baffles between the inner end of the cigarette and mouthpiece that includes adjacent disc-shaped members having diametrically opposed portions of their peripheral edges that are interconnected. In storage, the discs can be collapsed into small compact space while in use they extend to the length of the space formed between the inner end of the cigarette and the mouth zone of the holder exposing a large surface area to the smoke which is required to travel a circuitous path to provide cooling of the smoke before it reaches the mouth of the user. The baffle discs are coated with an absorbent material to filter undesirable tars and other impurities out of the smoke. The baffle discs are also described as capable of being made of compressible cellulose or synthetic foams that may be impregnated with suitable adsorbents.
In view of the above, attempts to filter smoke of hazardous materials and/or cooling the smoke before it is inhaled are known. However, further improvements can and need to be made to even further reduce the deleterious effects of cigarette smoke and, at the same time, promote the reduction in the number of cigarettes that heavy smokers consume on a daily basis.